Have your say: Are local directors up to the job?

In our December issue we looked at the increasing trend for TV commercials to be directed by eastern states based directors or handled internally by agencies themselves. Are WA-based directors being unfairly dumped as agencies seek to work with bigger names? Or is it just commercial reality as agencies are choosing directors with proven track-records to do the work to the required standard?

The usage of eastern states directors and production companies by local agencies has always been a sensitive issue. Ask a creative director about it and they are immediately on the defensive. Agencies have received plenty of criticism in the past for what is often seen as a failure to support the WA directors who do plenty of favours for them on run-of-the-mill work, only to be dumped when a big production budget campaign comes along.

But are our local directors up to the job?

Almost none of the major television done in Perth in the last couple of years has been directed by a Perth-based director, albeit that some is produced via local freelance line producers.

Gobstopper’s Perry Westwood has been particularly favoured. Westwood came to prominence in 2006, when he directed the HBF ‘Nice People’ campaign for 303. At the time, creative director Lindsay Medalia said Westwood won the job because he showed the most enthusiasm for the concept, contributing ideas for it from the outset. Campaign Brief noted that if that was indeed the case, it was disappointing from the local production companies. Since then, Westwood has been used extensively by both 303 and Marketforce. He has directed all of Marketforce’s Lotterywest television in the last two years. Apart from being a fine director, he is also well-liked by that client.

For their much-admired HBF television campaign, Meerkats used Niki Caro from Flying Fish (along with Academy Award-winning DOP Russell Boyd). Caro was chosen for her ability to handle the deliberately sentimental scripts with sensitivity, a trait she showed with her 2002 feature film Whalerider.

Gatecrasher used east coast freelance director/cinematographer Lachlan Milne to shoot its ‘Sugar’ tvc and ‘Brothers’ campaign for Smarter Than Smoking, neither of which were big budget productions. For the latter, the agency felt Milne would have strong rapport with the brothers, being of roughly the same age, and handle the material with care and tact. Most recently, The Brand has shot new work for Curtin and the RAC with Plaza Films’ Sam Bennetts and Film Graphics’ Phil Meatchem.

Agencies are also showing an increasing propensity to direct themselves.

303’s Richard Berney directed the agency’s Royal Life Saving commercials and Cooch directed the Westscheme campaign last year. This year, The Brand Agency’s David Donald directed the ‘Ribbit’ spot for Perth Zoo. The common link between all of these commercials was the use of renowned stills photographer Allan Myles as DOP.

These particular commercials had limited budgets, but on a larger scale, Meerkats creative director Mike Edmonds has directed several of the iiNet spots himself.

It seems agencies think local directors can’t bring anything to certain productions that, at one end of the budgetary scale, they can’t do themselves, or, at the other, get done better by an out-of-town director.

One agency producer said there was definitely a star factor involved in some creatives choosing to work with a national ‘name’ director if there was an opportunity to do so, regardless of whether a local director could do the job just as well.

The situation has been exacerbated by the GFC and the rise of digital media. The amount of television work available on the east coast is reducing and competition is fierce for the work. Not only are ‘name’ directors from Sydney willing to work on Perth budgets, they have the time to do it.

There is growing frustration on the part of local production companies at the trend for them to be bypassed.

One reason they’re given is that their treatments aren’t as comprehensive as those of their eastern states counterparts. Contradicting that, one producer said they’ve been told their treatments are too prescriptive and don’t allow enough flexibility for ideas ‘on the day’.

Another common perception is there aren’t any strong talent directors here. This was a source of frustration for Perth-born Adrian Holmes, who came back to Perth two years ago with a background in directing television drama. He found it difficult to break through and get consistent work here and has since returned to Melbourne.

Corrie Jones has just won an international award for his short film Water. The judges praised his direction of the film’s young star.

And former Sauce now ZZ director Sam Barrett has television series Trapped and two feature films on his resume. Yet the most notable piece of work he’s done in 2010 is the Andre tvc promo for The West Australian and mentioned in our ‘Best of Perth’ round-up in the December issue.

Production companies are also suspicious that they’re often asked to quote on jobs to make up the numbers, so agencies can at least say a local was given the opportunity, even though they have little or no chance of actually getting the job. But then on the other hand, they are also disappointed when they aren’t given the opportunity to quote on a job. It’s a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” for agencies.

Like creatives though, production companies are reluctant to go on the record with their true views for fear of destroying whatever chances they have of picking up work. Publicly they’ll say it’s a competitive market and agencies have the right to choose whoever they think is best for the job. Privately they are frustrated at what is perceived as a lack of up-front honesty in the pitch process and credible reasons when they miss out.

That will sound very familiar to agencies. It’s the same complaint they have about new business pitches (remember Tourism WA?).

But frustration is a two-way street. For their part, agencies are wary of local production companies promising they can do the work to the required standard, only to be let down by the final result. When the stakes are high, it’s simply safer to go with someone who has an established track-record.

Dave Wood’s return will be an interesting case. Wood was highly regarded and much in-demand before he left for the UK three years ago. He has returned with the benefit of that UK experience and a strong reel, and is keen to re-establish himself here.

Overall though, the outlook is less than encouraging for local directors as agencies and individual creatives aim to bolster their reels with national standard looking work. Unless WA-based directors can convince agencies they are up to the job, they might find themselves excluded from top level campaigns and left to scrap over second tier work.